Op-ed: Why is Bitcoin forking?

So this is it. Here we are. The community is divided and Bitcoin is forking: both the software and, perhaps, the blockchain too. The two sides of the split are Bitcoin Core and a slight variant of the same program, called Bitcoin XT. As of August 15, there is now a full release available.

Such a fork has never happened before. I want to explain things from the perspective of the Bitcoin XT developers: let it not be said there was insufficient communication.

Bitcoin forking is a topic that may interest many people, so this article is meant for a general audience. It doesn’t assume previous knowledge of the debate.